ColdFusion Insert() - How Did I Miss This Function?
Posted July 16, 2007 at 5:35 PM by Ben Nadel
I was doing some code evaluation today and I came across someone who was using a method named Insert(). At first I just assumed that this person was using a UDF since the method didn't look familiar to me. But, after checking out my HomeSite Help files, I realized that Insert() was a built-in ColdFusion function. How the heck did I miss this?!? Granted, I am not sure how often I would use something like this, but certainly, I am at the point where I should have all these low-level utility functions committed to memory.
The ColdFusion Insert() method takes a substring, a string, and an index and inserts the given substring into the given string after the given index. If the index is zero, the substring is prepended to the string. Take a look at this example:
- <!--- Create a string. --->
- <cfset strText = "Mind if I massage your feet?" />
-
- <!--- Insert the term "sexy" before the word feet. --->
- <cfset strText = Insert(
- <!--- The string we are inserting. --->
- "sexy ",
-
- <!--- The string we are modifying. --->
- strText,
-
- <!--- The index AFTER which we insert the new string. --->
- REFind( "(?i)\sfeet", strText )
- ) />
-
- <!--- Output the string. --->
- #strText#
Running the above code gives us the following output:
Mind if I massage your sexy feet?
In my example, I am using ColdFusion's REFind() method to find the index at which to insert. Since Insert() inserts the substring AFTER the index, I am including the space (\s) in my regular expression. This example is simple, but it is not a great example - if REFind() failed to find a match, it would return zero. Zero, in our case would not hault the Insert() method, but instead, it would prepend the substring to the string - probably not something we would intend on doing.
Anyway, I hate it when functions like this either completely slide under my radar or at least don't get stuck in my memory. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy :)
Reader Comments
heh...
http://cfblog.griefer.com/index.cfm/id/insert_i_had_no_idea
:)
Ha Charlie!
I KNEW I'd seen this post before!
Ha ha ha ha... Charlie, I think I even remember reading that post. I remember the phrase "hahaha. silly n00b"... Dang! That was months ago. Why can't I insert... Insert into my brain!!!
That's it! I'm using Insert() somehow in every algorithm going forward until it sticks :)
Ben,
Can you update this post with an example of comparing two comma separated lists and using "Insert()" to make the lists equal?
Mike
@Mike,
You could probably just convert both lists to arrays and then using arrayInsertAy(). But, I am not sure I fully understand the question.
